As is well known in the art, a method for manufacturing a garment, for example, a T-shirt, having a neck collar which is produced by folding a knitted material, is implemented as described below.
First, a T-shirt is designed. Then, a base pattern is made in conformity with the design, and a knitted material is cut in accordance with the base pattern. Then, a neck collar, a front bodice, a rear bodice, and sleeves are formed. Next, front and rear bodices are coupled with each other, and the sleeves are coupled to the resultant product to form a bodice. Thereafter, the neck collar is coupled to the bodice to complete the T-shirt.
There are two ways of forming a neck collar. In one way, a rectangular neck collar preform is cut from a flat knitted material to have a length which corresponds to the sum of two times the circumference of a finally produced neck collar and the lengths of inseams at both lengthwise ends of the finally produced neck collar, and to have a width which corresponds to the sum of two times the width of the finally produced neck collar and the widths of inseams at both widthwise ends of the finally produced neck collar. In the other way, a tubular knitted material having the same circumference as that of a finally produced neck collar is prepared and is then cut to have a width which corresponds to the sum of two times the width of the finally produced neck collar and the widths of inseams at both widthwise ends of the finally produced neck collar.
Meanwhile, in order to couple the neck collar to the bodice of a T-shirt, in the case where the knitted material is cut to have a rectangular shape, both end portions of the knitted material are sewn to form the shape of a round band which in turn is folded in the widthwise direction thereof to complete the neck collar, and then the completed neck collar is coupled to the bodice adjacent to the circular upper edge of the bodice that defines a neck opening. In the case where a tubular knitted material having the same circumference as that of a neck collar is cut, the tubular knitted material is simply folded in the widthwise direction thereof to complete the neck collar, and the completed neck collar is coupled to the bodice adjacent to the circular upper edge of the bodice that defines a neck opening.
At this time, since the circular upper edge of the bodice that defines a neck opening generally has a circumference which is greater than that of the neck collar, when attaching the neck collar to the bodice through sewing, the lower end portion of the neck collar which is attached to the bodice must be stretched so that it has the same circumference as the circular upper edge of the bodice. Then, the lower end portion of the neck collar is sewn to the bodice.
However, in the neck collar of the T-shirt produced as described above, due to the characteristic of the texture of the knitted material, as shown in FIG. 1a, loops of yarn are continuously interlocked with one another. Therefore, as the garment is repeatedly put on and taken off and washed, the yarn of the neck collar are gradually extended so that the loops are enlarged when compared to the original ones. Therefore, the neck collar loses its initial elastic return force and is stretched as shown in FIG. 1b. As a result, the neck collar being a part repeatedly expanded and contracted is likely to droop, whereby the aesthetic appearance of the garment is deteriorated, and the T-shirt may look worn-out.
In order to cope with this problem, as means for increasing the return force of the texture of the knitted material, a knitted fabric is made using yarn containing Spandex, which has a predetermined degree of elasticity. Nevertheless, while it is possible to retard the drooping of the neck collar because the texture of the knitted fabric made in this way still has loops interlocked with one another, as the garment having the knitted neck collar made in this way is repeatedly put on and taken off and washed, the neck collar is extended, whereby the aesthetic appearance of the garment is deteriorated and the T-shirt may look worn-out.
Therefore, demand necessarily exists in the art for a novel knitted neck collar which is capable of solving the above-described problem, and a method for producing the same.